My 'Next-Big-Thing' List: Who Will Transform The Post-TV Ad World In 2017

Avi Dan
, ContributorI like what's next and what's nowOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Madison Avenue is shifting rapidly as marketers are looking at agencies through the lens of transformation. They are seeking solutions across commerce, digital content and media distribution, but legacy agencies are slow to respond and too often are the manifestation of the traditional. The shift to analytics and technology has changed the nature of the marketing ecosystem. The era of TV advertising is waning. Emerging are specialists who focus on social media, digital media, user experience or open source. This wave of innovators is poised to reshape Madison Avenue:

Management Consultancies like Accenture, IBM, PwC and Deloitte are engaged in acquisition of agencies that have capabilities in user experiences, digital marketing, design, Web and mobile. They have advantages that the ordinary ad agencies can’t match like vertical expertise, and – due to their existing consulting relationships — a better understanding of how digital marketing can fit into an overall business strategy.

K2 Intelligence is the forensic and compliance firm that, in a study commission by the ANA, discovered pervasive non-transparent business practices, including cash rebates to media agencies. It’s assisting marketers investigating the transparency of their ad agencies and could revolutionize client-agency relationships.

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Hearts And Science is a new breed media agency, inspired by a world of personalized digital marketing, where CRM and addressable channels capabilities are designed to inform brand strategies with real-time insights. It offers data-driven marketing, shopper marketing, and content activation with bespoke solutions that helped it captured the media accounts of the two largest advertisers, P&G and AT&T.

Vice Media Advertising, journalism and technology continue to converge. Vice, which began as a magazine in 1994, has since moved into video, television, advertising, music and events. Its recent acquisition of Carrot Creative, a digital agency that creates apps, websites and games will allow it to distribute editorial content and the agency will also focus on building digital initiatives for brands that work with Vice..

The Frenemies Facebook and Google have the wherewithal to create agencies. Verizon’s acquisition of AOL and Yahoo as well as the pending acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T puts them in position to converge content creation and distribution. Even Amazon, which has a powerful position in the entire programmatic funnel can disrupt Madison Avenue.

iCrossing is part of publishing giant Hearst, with access to converged expertise and capabilities of over 360 global businesses – including magazines, cable networks and local television stations, newspapers, and investments in emerging digital and video companies.

VaynerMedia is a brand consulting agency. It started out with a focus on social media and digital and is now offering everything from content and production, paid media and experiential events that bring vision to life.

Tongal is a crowdsourcing platform that’s an online community of writers, directors, and production companies. Tongal's methodology allows anyone to contribute at any one of the steps along the way — from ideation through the production of content.